The title sounded….ominous (just substitute “Big Bad Wolf” for “Boxer” and you’ll see what I mean).

Then I found out one of the lead characters paints with boxing gloves.

“This I’ve gotta see,” I thought to myself.

Very quickly, I realized the boxing, like most everything else in the film, is like a Buddhist koan, or paradoxical statement, that so intrigues and distracts the mind the heart can finally pop through to nab its own five minutes of fame.

Sort of like what happens when you realize that the film about art you are watching is really a film about love….and the most challenging sort of love at that.

I LOVED this film! I mean – loved it.

What is not to love about a love story that feels so real it could be your own?

What else but love could I feel for a film that offers neither tragic horror nor Hollywood-happy ending, but simply the continuation of two lives, two loves, who are still (even to this day!) figuring out how to make everything but the “I love you” part work for them both.

Big. deep. sign. of. relief.

It’s like – somebody finally told the TRUTH.

This stuff is HARD.

Sometimes one partner needs to have so much endurance, so much patience, so much vision.

Sometimes both partners need all of that and more.

I really don’t want to share too much else because I feel like the film has its own gifts to give each of us, and “priming the pump” might detract from what it has for you versus for me.

But if you find yourself – now or ever – just grappling with what love looks like, feels like, sounds like, acts like, what it does or doesn’t do, where it draws its lines, then know you are not alone.

My two newest on-screen love mentors.

In that way, watching “Cutie and the Boxer” is like meeting two powerful on-screen mentors who are also the other two members of your “love support group.”

And when it all gets too overwhelming, the three of you go draw naked people yelling at each other….or don boxing gloves and hit the crap out of some paint.

Whatever works.

Today’s Takeaway: Have you seen “Cutie and the Boxer?” Can you relate to “real life love” that just doesn’t always feel like it works….but it works enough, and often enough, that you just stay in it and follow where it keeps leading you? What helps reassure and encourage you to continue in relationships like these?

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